Well, the ladies took a somewhat intermediate approach to Tuesday’s game: they didn’t exert themselves incredibly, but all of the starters except Brzozowski got upwards of 25 minutes; Ross and Chambers got 36 each, which is too much in my opinion, but then I guess there’s a reason why McLaughlin became the winningest coach in Penn history last weekend (forgot to mention that earlier.) Princeton stayed in it for the first half, but pretty much packed it in when Penn got up double digits in the 4th; they’ll put forth a better effort if we meet them again. We didn’t shoot well overall, at only 30%, but did shoot better from 3, at 38%. That will need to continue, and probably improve, in the SEA. Interestingly, they cut down the nets, paraded the trophy around, and the whole nine yards after the game; one hopes this does not bring the curse of James Jones down on their heads.

As I’ve posted previously, with the Tigers and Crimson having limped into the end of the season (1 for their last 4 and 1 for 5, respectively), the Bears may be our toughest opponent. Brown has a lot of weapons, and in the Providence game they gave us a big scare, going up 15 after one, and having a wide open 3 to tie at the buzzer. Shayna Mehta, Justine Graziano, and Erica Steeves are all capable of going off for 20+ at any time. In the first game, we shot 55% and 50% from 3, and crushed them by 26; the second game, we shot 45%, which is still really good for us, but barely pulled it out. If I were the coach, I’d spend most of my time drilling for how we’re going to score against them; we can’t rely on shutting them down as much as we have some of the other Ivy teams. The good news is, as also posted earlier, is that if we survive that game, we should have a pretty considerable rest advantage on the winner of Princeton-Harvard. Still, they’re going to have to expect to come up with a good number of points in that one as well. I really hope they’re focused and not assuming that they can just show up and win; it would be a pity if this group’s legacy was stained by not finishing well this year. In fairness, the coach seems to be pretty good at getting them up for the big games, so let’s hope he can do it again.